Full Programme Announced for Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2023

Frieze has confirmed details of its curated programme at Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2023, both taking place from 11–15 October in The Regent’s Park. A centrepiece of Frieze London’s 20th-anniversary celebrations, the programme explores the UK’s cultural landscape through a series of collaborations with key arts organizations and public institutions. 

These collaborations will sit alongside Frieze London’s special section Artist-to-Artist, which invites eight world-renowned artists to propose a counterpart for a solo exhibition at the fair, as well as the return of the critically acclaimed Frieze Artist Award and free public programme Frieze Sculpture.  

Highlights include a special project with Outset and a new off-site film programme at the ICA. Key initiatives returning to the fairs include the Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund, the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze and the Frieze Tate Fund supported by Endeavor. This year also sees the addition of the Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Fund, as well as the second year of the Spirit Now Acquisition Fund in collaboration with Hepworth Wakefield.   

Frieze Masters sees the return of the Art Fund Curators Programme, connecting early-career curators from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds to exchange ideas through talks, workshops and tours, as well as the highly respected Frieze Masters Talks, in collaboration with dunhill and curated for the fourth consecutive year by Dr. Nicholas Cullinan (Director of the National Portrait Gallery). 

PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS 

Channelling, Outset Studiomakers Corridor Commission 

To mark the 20th anniversaries of Frieze and Outset Contemporary Art Fund, recipients of Outset’s Studiomakers Prize have been invited to present an artist takeover of the entrance corridor to Frieze London, responding to the space. Studiomakers champions the security of long-term, affordable spaces for London's cultural infrastructure, to retain artistic talent in London. The Studiomakers Prize was launched in 2017, awarding rent-free workspaces annually to outstanding MA Fine Art graduates, selected from London’s leading art schools. 

The Frieze Corridor installation is the first time the Prize cohorts have worked together. The installation is led by curator Annie Jael Kwan.

Candice Lin to Present a New Commission in Collaboration with Getty’s PST Art

Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist Candice Lin will present a new work in a collaboration between Frieze and Getty’s PST Art initiative employing her use of traditional indigo-dying techniques, demonstrated in works such as Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping (2021), and continuing her research into the impact of scientific taxonomies. The commission will take the form of large-scale indigo-dyed kites, drawing on Asian traditions, which will be displayed at the fair and flown by performers in The Regent’s Park. Lin’s research on the practice of castration in human culture is echoed by the negative spaces created by the disticntive central holes of traditional Korean fighter kites.

The kites’ surface decoration will feature mythological and animal imagery while referencing 19th-century representations of eunuchs at the imperial Chinese court. Rethinking these histories from an inter-species perspective, Lin’s use of kites as a medium – the first time the artist has done so – also engages the long enmeshment of art and science, reminiscent of historical explorations of aerial devices. A public kite workshop co-taught with Yaeun Choi will invite visitors to create and fly their own kites during the fair.

Frieze Film x ICA: Artists’ Film Programme

This year sees the introduction of the Frieze Film x ICA: Artists’ Film Programme, a new collaboration selected by a jury of leading curators specializing in artists’ film and moving image. Launching Monday 9 October, the programme will be selected from an open call to all participating galleries in Frieze London and shown at the ICA throughout Frieze Week, 10–15 October. The jury includes Steven Cairns (ICA Curator, Artists’ Film & Moving Image); Róisín Tapponi (Founder, CEO and Head of Programmes, Shasha Movies); and Greg de Cuir Jr. (Co-founder and artistic director of Kinopravda Institute in Belgrade). 

Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze 

Launched at Frieze London 2018 and now in its fifth year, this annual prize awards an emerging artist, whose work is exhibited in the Focus section of Frieze London, with the opportunity to deliver their first institutional solo exhibition in London in the Camden Art Centre galleries. The 2022 recipient of the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize was Marina Xenofontos (Hot Wheels, Athens) who will realise a major exhibition at Camden Art Centre entitled ‘Public Domain’ that will open, timed for Frieze, on 6 October 2023. The winner of this year’s Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize will be announced during Frieze London 2023. 

CAS Collections Fund 

The Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund is designed to support the acquisition of significant contemporary works for Contemporary Art Society Museum Members across the UK. This year CAS has selected The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge as the recipient of the Collections Fund at Frieze 2023. The work selected will explore power hierarchies from a postcolonial perspective, with the aim to decolonialize the institution’s collection which includes art as well as historical global artefacts.

Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Fund 

This year sees the addition of the inaugural Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Fund at Frieze London. The fund will select a work form one or several UK-based early-career or overlooked artists at Frieze London to become part of the Arts Council Collection, the most widely circulated national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art. The selection committee, chaired by Sir Nicholas Serota (Chair, Arts Council England), includes Harriet Cooper (Programme Director, Jerwood Visual Arts), Peter Heslip (Director of Visual Arts, Arts Council England), Marie-Anne McQuay (Director of Projects, Art & Heritage), Vanessa Peterson (Associate Editor, writer, and photographer, Frieze), Ralph Rugoff (Director, Hayward Gallery), Deborah Smith (Director, Arts Council Collection) and John Walter (artist). 

Frieze Tate Fund Supported by Endeavor 

For the eighth year, the Frieze Tate Fund Supported by Endeavor will provide £150,000 for the acquisition of works by emerging and leading international artists at Frieze for Tate’s collection. This year’s selection panel includes Polly Staple (Director of Collection, British Art, Tate) and Gregor Muir (Director of Collection, International Art, Tate), alongside external curators Salma Tuqan and Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy. To date, more than 160 works by over 95 artists have been acquired, contributing to many displays that have taken place across Tate’s four galleries. 

Spirit Now London Acquisition Fund  

Founded in 2015 and directed by Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Spirit Now London is an international community of patrons with a philanthropic mission to support cultural institutions, and emerging and women artists. In partnership with Frieze London, Spirit Now London presents the second edition of the Spirit Now London Acquisition Prize, which places a special emphasis on empowering female artists, and recognizes the achievements of women artists under 40 exhibiting at Frieze London. This year the selected work will be chosen and acquired by the Spirit of Giving committee of SNL on behalf of The Hepworth Wakefield Art Museum. 

Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art Prize  

This year marks the introduction of a new award by the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art (CPGA), realized in collaboration with Frieze London. The CPGA Prize honours a French or France-based artist exhibiting at the fair, with the aim to promote the work of French artists to an international audience. A panel of international curators and collectors will select the recipient, who will receive a £10,000 prize. 

Frieze Masters Talks in collaboration with dunhill 

Dr. Nicholas Cullinan (Director, National Portrait Gallery) returns to curate Frieze Masters Talks exploring the connections between historical art and contemporary practice. In collaboration with dunhill, the talks will take place in a dedicated auditorium at the fair, with speakers including artists Maggi Hambling, Thomas J. Price, Arlene Shechet, Rachel Whiteread and more. The conversations will be recorded as a podcast and made available on frieze.com and dunhill.com, as well as platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

The Frieze BBC Debate: Museums in the 21st Century

Since its celebrated launch in 2018, the Frieze BBC Debate has brought together leaders from throughout the international artworld to explore what it means to run an arts organisation in this century. The discussion will be broadcast for Free Thinking, BBC Radio 3’s flagship art and culture programme. 

Art Fund Curators Programme at Frieze Masters  

Launched in 2016 at Frieze Masters in partnership with Art Fund, this programme brings together emerging career curators from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds to exchange ideas through talks, workshops and tours. The programme connects curators to explore different models of working – from collection care and development, to loaning, partnerships and research opportunities. The aim of the programme is to create a network of curators from different backgrounds and disciplines who can share their knowledge to strengthen institutional programming and research.

Frieze and Art Fund have collaborated with Subject Specialist Networks at The National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, London to explore specific areas of study and connect with a broad and diverse network of regional UK based curators, and counterparts from leading international institutions. This year’s keynote speaker will be Ann Demeester (Director, Kunsthaus Zürich).

For the 20th consecutive year, Frieze London and Frieze Masters are supported by Deutsche Bank, which this year will present a collaboration with artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

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READ MORE

The full list of galleries and curators taking part in Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2023.

^{Main image: Tenant of Culture, Residual Hue (Series) Kitten Heel, 2022, recycled shoes, glue, jesmonite, thread, afterseason ink collected by Aliki van der Kruijs,paint. Courtesy the artist and Soft Opening, London. Installation view of Tenant of Culture, ‘Soft Acid’, at Camden Art Centre, 2022. Photograph: Rob Harris}